Function (Social Sciences)
The function concept is used in disciplines anthropological and sociological , but it is not exactly the same meaning a stream to another and according to the authors.
Summary |
By the concept of function means studying the role of a social fact (an institution, custom, practice ...)
The concept of function involves at least two phenomena :
- study the role of a phenomenon on another (two are involved);
- study the role of a phenomenon on society (a multitude of social phenomena are involved).
There are different types of functions:
- the functional purpose;
- function-process: the function of a social fact creates a social process;
- function-result;
The function according to the authors
The notion of function has been developed by the current functionalist , by Bronislaw Malinowski , by Emile Durkheim and so by Radcliffe-Brown.
The concept of function in Malinowski
For the anthropologist behind the current functionalist , the notion of function is essential for understanding human society. For him, the function of any social fact is to meet the needs of society whose needs the most basic.
Bronislaw Malinowski uses the representation of an organic body to illustrate social phenomena. Indeed, a society form a whole composed of parts maintaining organic relations between them. Later, Marcel Mauss seek to define the system trobraindais of the Kula as a total social fact. Thus, by taking a social fact and describing its function, we can according to B. Malinowski rebuild the operating diagram of the society under study and understand the logic.
He puts this approach into practice in his study of Trobriand societies by studying the phenomenon of kula , he recounts in his book The Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
The concept of function in Durkheim
For Durkheim the concept of function is not only useful for the identification of social mechanisms, it is a means to achieve the proper functioning of the entire social body. The term function has two dimensions, "is now a system of vital movements, regardless of their consequences, sometimes it expresses the relationship of correspondence between these movements and the body needs some" References
Of the social division of labor, depending on the division of labor
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